


Legacy of a Shaman

by RenderedReversed



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Spirits, Ambiguous Love, Bonds/Partnership, M/M, dead/ghost!powerful!shaman!Voldemort, descendentofLV!shaman!Tom, established relationship(s) - Freeform, spirit!powerful!Harry, still trying to cover all my bases
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-20
Updated: 2015-05-20
Packaged: 2018-03-31 09:36:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3973111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RenderedReversed/pseuds/RenderedReversed
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Tell me something, Harry.”</p><p>“Anything."</p><p>“Do you love him more than you loved me?”</p><p>In which the long dead ghost of Voldemort questions his once-partner, spirit Harry Potter, of his relationship with his descendant, Tom Riddle. The answers he gets are not necessarily that which he wants, but under the sky of the setting sun it's difficult to say he isn't satisfied.</p><p>Harry is, after all, better at keeping promises than he is.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Legacy of a Shaman

“I see you’re getting along well with my cute little descendent,” is the first thing Voldemort says once he and his once-partner are alone.

Harry laughs. “He’s a lot like you, master. Still a lot to learn, but I think he knows more than you think.”

“He’s a thousand years too early to consider himself equal to me,” the ghost sniffs. “A _million_ years too early to think himself worthy of _you_.”

Harry sighs. “Oh, master…”

They both turn to look out toward the sky. Positioned on the high cliff-side, the fading sun is visible without obstruction, and the orange-pink tinge of the sky is irrefutably fresh here. There’s something peaceful between them, partners in one life long past. A ghost of a shaman and his once bonded spirit—his once bonded shade who he’d helped evolve into a _Manes_.

But Voldemort had never been so sure if it was _him_ who had helped. Harry is plenty strong on his own—the spirit has simply never acknowledged it. Probably a remnant from his past life that Harry has no memories of.

“Tell me something, Harry.”

“Anything,” the _Manes_ replies softly.

“Do you love him more than you loved me?”

There is a pause. Harry considers the question carefully, eyes fixed on the yonder even as his focus is on the one beside him. “I don’t think they can compare,” he says at last, “My love for you, and my love for Tom…they’re too different.”

“How so?”

“My love for you and my existence…are the same thing. If I had never loved you, I don’t think I would still exist. I think I would’ve faded away as a shade long ago. If you hadn’t saved me—well, I think you know. I owe you many things, even though I’ve probably paid them back a hundred times over by now. And I don’t think my love for you has ever ended, master—Voldemort.”

“I always wondered,” begins Voldemort, “how you felt when I gave everything up. When I lost my powers. When I…when I even forgot you…”

“When you fell in love with someone else,” Harry continues, “when you got married. When you started a family. When you grew old, surrounded by your children and your children’s children. When you died with a smile. Even though you couldn’t see me, I was there beside you. I never left, master.”

The ghost takes a moment to collect himself. “I apologize.”

“Why ever would you apologize? You haven’t wronged me in any way, master,” the _Manes_ says, turning to Voldemort with an honest smile. “As long as you were happy, I was happy. Even if you couldn’t see me, even if I couldn’t speak to you, I was happy. Why else do you think I’ve watched over your descendents for all these years? I could have moved on. I could have simply wandered. But I didn’t. Master, I was happy.”

“I broke our vow.”

“It doesn’t matter. Our vow meant nothing if you weren’t happy, master. And I could see how that life—the life as a shaman—ate away at you. You were suffering, and I could do nothing to help you. I think it was for the best in the end that you lost your powers—even if it meant forgetting your love for me, at least you got another chance to live the life you never could’ve.” Harry turns away to look back at the drooping sun. “Besides, you were living. I was dead. A love like ours…it could’ve never made you truly happy.”

“Then what of Tom?” Voldemort asks. “He too is living. You are still dead. Do you think history will repeat itself?”

Harry pauses. “…No, I don’t think it will. Tom, though he is similar to you, is also very different. It isn’t in a bad way, or a good way, just… different. I don’t think he’d make the same choices.”

The conversation stills. Both of their concentrations are on each other, even as their gazes are out to the infinite sky. If this had been another life, Voldemort would’ve held him, and he would’ve leaned into a strong back without reservation. But it isn’t another life, it’s _this life_ , so they stand side by side instead, and Harry does not touch him nor does Voldemort make a move to do as he would’ve.

There is a physical gap between them, but their hearts have none.

“I was happy,” Voldemort says, “I loved her. I loved my children. But mine as well—my love for you and my existence were one, even when I didn’t remember you. If I had never loved you so deeply, never _kept_ loving you even as I forgot who I loved, I don’t think I could’ve been as happy as I was. You said I saved you. You know you saved _me_.”

“We saved each other,” Harry agrees, “the shade who could not remember, and the child blessed with life from death. I’m…glad. Yes, I’m glad, master—that I was able to help you, in the end.”

“Of course you did. We were bonded—even when that bond faded away when I lost my powers, I felt your protection. I didn’t know what it was, but I felt…safe. As if I had nothing to fear from the world, even while I was dying. That was you, was it not?”

The _Manes_ smiles. “Yes, master. I promised myself I would always protect you, as you protected me. And so I did.”

Voldemort nods, taking the statement as fact without batting an eye. “And Tom?” he says, bringing the conversation back to its point.

Harry stares up at the sky and silently wonders at its gradual shifting. He sees the outline of the moon, watches the slow drift of the clouds, feels the muted blow of the winds. His ancient robes flutter, even as his body remains transparent. In this place, he looks even more timeless than he does amongst the modern world—one with nature, a guardian of the border between life and death.

And yet…

“Tom,” Harry whispers, tasting the name on his tongue. He repeats himself louder for his companion’s sake. “Tom. Tom is…”

“Is?”

Harry turns fully to Voldemort, this time. “I’ve always loved you,” he says softly, “and I don’t think I’ll ever stop. You’re part of my existence, master. So integral a piece to me I don’t think I can _exist_ without the thought of you. Without the remembrance of you. You were always mine, and I was always yours. In that way, we are forever one being—such that none could take that away from us. I see it in your eyes, master, you _know_ —you understand what I mean. And you agree with me. I know.

“But master, this world is so _large_. I thought I saw it in its entirety when I traveled it with you, all over continents and even beneath the sea. We went everywhere together, I thought, and I thought I knew what it was all about. I thought I knew enough to say I knew the world. But I don’t think I was right. I don’t think I know it at all. Because a life only lasts so long, and when one life passes, another begins—changing the world slowly but forever. And I think—I think as a _Manes_ , as a shade who has evolved into something stronger, something wiser, something _timeless_ , I think I need to take the chance and see it all over again, with different eyes now.

“I’ve lived in the past for so long, frozen in place without understanding what _progression_ is, that I feel out of place. Improper. And before I pass on, I want to remedy that. When I move on, I want to say I’ve become part of this world again. I want to say I’ve seen the present, and then I want to tell you everything once I see you again. And—and— _and_ —” Harry swallows the jumble of words that wanted to spill out of his throat, instead choosing to say only the most important out of the lot, “I want to see it with _Tom_. Because I love him.

“I love him like the stars in the sky, the way we stand on the ground instead of float in the air. I love him like the beat of the waves as they ebb and flow, like how night turns to day and day turns to night. I love him because _reason exists_ and things in this universe just _are_! You—I love _you_ like how a person exists, truly, definitely, and without question. The way I love him—the way I love _Tom_ —it’s like the way I love this world, like a newborn babe opening his eyes for the first time. And I want to keep loving him until my time here is over, and I return to the embryo of the skies with you.

“Is that—is that okay?”

Voldemort does not speak for awhile. Harry is unperturbed, and waits for an answer with an unwavering gaze.

Then, the ghost slowly nods. “I’ll wait for you,” he says. “A hundred—two hundred—three hundred years, even. I’ve already waited five hundred. I can wait a few more. Take all the time you need, Harry, and come back to me with many stories to tell of you and my cute little descendent.”

Harry smiles, leans over, and bridges the gap with an embrace. “Yes, I will.”

 _Thank you_.

“Speaking of that little descendent of mine, let us return to him. Most likely he’s running a trench into the ground pacing after you deserted him.”

Harry laughs. “ _Master_! I didn’t _desert_ him…though, I think you might be right. Tom does seem to worry about the most inane things. I’ve never understood that silly human concept of jealousy. It seems ever so pointless.”

Voldemort shoots him a dry look as they begin to walk back. “I better wish my cute descendent luck for dealing with _you_. I’ve almost forgotten how completely oblivious you can be.”

“Hm? Did you say something, master?”

“Of course not, Harry. Come, I can see him already in the distance doing exactly what I predicted.”

“Ah, we’d better hurry then—before he goes on a rampage.” Harry moves to run forward, and Voldemort expects he’ll have to catch up at a slower pace but is pleasantly surprised when the spirit catches his hand instead and drags him with him.

Harry will not forget. It is a promise, and Voldemort knows his partner is better at keeping those than he is.

**Author's Note:**

> So I have a bazillion other things I should be working on, which includes but is not limited to: FINALS (projects), Until Death Do Us Part, The Game, and my Pokemon AU series........ but the power of the plot bunny is too strong.
> 
> This oneshot is from a fic that I started writing but discontinued, as it would've been too long for me to viably finish, about a TMR who grows up and gains the ability to see spirits in the summer of his sixth year. Chased by a lost soul trying to eat him, Tom meets Harry, who is the self-proclaimed guardian of the Gaunt family line, as well as once right-hand man of his ancestor Voldemort, a powerful shaman said to have commanded an army of ten thousand spirits.
> 
> Harry teaches Tom, and at some point Tom's agenda turns from not only re-establishing Dark wizards and witches a place in the world, but also saving Western shamans from extinction. During his journey, he gets strong enough to call the powerful soul of Voldemort himself in order to request for help in learning a difficult shamanic technique, and this is where this scene is from. Also known as: the one time Tom had to suck it up and summon his darling Harry's ex-boyfriend/lover/fiance Voldemort, and has to suffer through their inevitable meeting too.
> 
> Poor Tom.
> 
> Anyway yeah, I thought it was a shame to let this plot bunny go (it was a rather good one, in my opinion), so I picked the most powerful scene out of it and decided to make it as a oneshot. Here you go! If someone wants to grab the plot bunny, np please do. I'm here to answer questions about the universe too!
> 
> btw if anyone was wondering: _Manes_ is a human spirit who has lived and grown in powers through a period of many years. Voldemort met Harry as a shade (aka a human spirit), and presumably because of his extremely strong spiritual powers, caused Harry to skip the gradual growth period and instead become a _Manes_ fairly quickly.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed ^_~


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